Phonetics Vocabulary

Front 1

Affricate

Back 1

A stop followed by a homorganic fricative

Front 2

Allophone

Back 2

A variant of a phoneme

Front 3

Alternations

Back 3

Variations in words that can be described in terms of phonological rules

Front 4

Alveolar

Back 4

"An articulation involving the tip or blade of the tongue and the alveolar ridge, such as d in English die"

Front 5

Anticipatory coarticulation

Back 5

An action in which one of the speech organs that is not involved in making a particular sound moves toward its position for a subsequent sound

Front 6

Apical

Back 6

An articulation involving the tip of the tongue

Front 7

Approximant

Back 7

"An articulation in which one articulator is close to another but without the tract being narrowed to such an extent that a turbulent airstream is produced j,l,r,w are approximants"

Front 8

Articulation

Back 8

The approach or contact of two speech organs

Front 9

Aspiration

Back 9

"A period of voicelessness after the release of an articulation, as in English pie"

Front 10

Assimilation

Back 10

The change of one sound into another sound because of the influence of neighboring sounds

Front 11

Back vowels

Back 11

"Vowels in which the body of the tongue is in the back part of the oral cavity. The vowels u,o, (backward c), a form a set of back reference vowels."

Front 12

bilabial

Back 12

an articulation involving both lips

Front 13

breathy voice

Back 13

another name for murmur

Front 14

click

Back 14

a stop made with an ingressive velaric airstream

Front 15

closed syllable

Back 15

a syllable with a consonant at the end

Front 16

coarticulation

Back 16

the overlapping of adjacent articulations

Front 17

coda

Back 17

the consonants occurring after the vowel in a syllable

Front 18

coronal

Back 18

a term for sounds articulated with the tip or blade of the tongue raised toward the teeth or the alveolar ridge such as [s, t]

Front 19

creaky voice

Back 19

another term for laryngealization

Front 20

diphthong

Back 20

a vowel in which there is a change in quality during a single syllable, as in English [aI] in high

Front 21

dorsal

Back 21

describing sounds articulated with the back of the tongue

Front 22

downdrift

Back 22

the tendency for the pitch to fall throughout an intonational phrase

Front 23

ejective

Back 23

a stop made with an egressive glottalic airstream

Front 24

epenthesis

Back 24

the insertion of one or more sounds in the middle of a word

Front 25

flap

Back 25

an articulation in which one articulator, usually the tongue tip, is drawn back and then allowed to strike against another articulator in returning to its rest position

Front 26

formant

Back 26

a group of overtones corresponding to a resonating frequency of air in the vocal tract

Front 27

fricative

Back 27

narrowing of the distance between two articulators so that the airstream is partially obstructed and a turbulent airflow is produced, as in English [z] in zoo

Front 28

front vowels

Back 28

i, e, ɛ, a form a set of front vowels

Front 29

geminate

Back 29

adjacent segments that are the same

Front 30

glottal

Back 30

an articulation involving the glottis as [ ʔ ] in button

Front 31

glottalic airstream mechanism

Back 31

movement of pharynx air by the action of the glottis. Ejectives and Implosives are formed this way

Front 32

glottis

Back 32

the space between the vocal folds

Front 33

homorganic

Back 33

made in the same place of articulation, d and n in hand are homorganic

Front 34

implosive

Back 34

a stop made with an ingressive glottalic airstream

Front 35

interdental

Back 35

articulated with the tongue between the upper and lower teeth

Front 36

labial

Back 36

involving one or both lips: [f, v, m[

Front 37

laryngeal

Back 37

the region of the vocal tract at the glottis where consonantal articulations such as [h, ʔ ] are made

Front 38

lateral

Back 38

an articulation in which the airstream flows over the sides of the tongue as in English [l]

Front 39

lax

Back 39

lax vowels in English can occur in monosyllables closed by ng, such as sing, length, hang, long, hung.

Front 40

liquid

Back 40

l and various r sounds

Front 41

murmur

Back 41

another name for breathy voice

Front 42

nasal

Back 42

a sound in which the soft palate is lowered so that there is no velic closure and air may go out through the nose, as in English [m]

Front 43

nasalization

Back 43

lowering of the soft palate during a sound in which air is going out of the mouth (often anticipatory)

Front 44

nucleus

Back 44

the center of a syllable, usually just the vowel

Front 45

obstruent

Back 45

a fricative, stop, or affricate

Front 46

onset

Back 46

the consonants occurring before the vowel in a syllable

Front 47

open syllable

Back 47

a syllable without a consonant at the end

Front 48

oral stop

Back 48

complete stoppage of both the nasal and oral cavities, as in [b, d, g]

Front 49

palatal

Back 49

an articulation involving the front of the tongue and the hard palate

Front 50

phoneme

Back 50

one of a set of abstract units that can be used for writing a language down in a systematic and unambiguous way

Front 51

plosive

Back 51

a stop made with a pulmonic airstream mechanism, such as in English p or b

Front 52

rhotacization

Back 52

r-coloring, resulting from the lowering of the third formant

Front 53

stop

Back 53

complete closure of two articulators

Front 54

stress

Back 54

the use of extra respiratory energy during a syllable

Front 55

tap

Back 55

a rapid movement of the tip of the tongue upward to contact the roof of the mouth

Front 56

tense

Back 56

tense vowels in English are those which can occur in stressed open syllables

Front 57

tone

Back 57

a pitch that conveys part of the meaning in a word

Front 58

uvular

Back 58

an articulation involving the back of the tongue and the uvula as the r in French rouge

Front 59

velar

Back 59

an articulation involving the back of the tongue and the velum as in English g in guy

Front 60

velaric airstream mechanism

Back 60

movement of mouth air by action of the tongue (clicks are produced this way)

Front 61

velum

Back 61

the soft movable part of the palate at the back of the mouth

Front 62

vocoid

Back 62

a sound with no obstruction at the center of the mouth. Vowels and semi-vowels are vocoids

Front 63

voice bar

Back 63

a dark area near the baseline in a spectrogram, indicating voicing during a consonant

Front 64

voiced

Back 64

having vibrations of the vocal folds during an articulation

Front 65

voiceless

Back 65

pronounced without vibrations of the vocal folds

Front 66

voice onset time

Back 66

the moment at which the voicing starts relative to the release of a closure